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Article written for and published in the July Mensa Business Newsletter

Business systemisation is the process of analysing your business, standardising processes, creating operating procedures and then following them. This article outlines the benefits of systemisation and the simple 5-step process to get you started.

Why systemise your business or role?

Systemisation can create tangible benefits for a wide range of people in business.

Information systems - IT processes that pull data about the business and its operations together to allow for comparison and selection of best practices

To keep this general for all types of business I will focus on the soft systems.

The other two types will depend on your specific trade. Some of these I have already experienced in the businesses that I own and run and some we are still aiming towards. Hopefully, you will resonate with some of them.

Efficiencies

Standardising procedures and processes creates efficiencies in both time and money.

When I worked in a corporate role, I systemised a lot of my role simply by linking spreadsheets directly with the accounting system and other reports from managers. This freed up time to focus on improving other processes that I was managing to keep ahead.

In our property business, we have turned 3-bed houses into 5-bed multi-let houses. The first time we did this we recorded the exact specification we required, who we used, where we purchased all of the furnishings and the costs involved. Now the process document for this has made all conversions since and all future conversions simpler. We are able to estimate refurbishment costs quickly and accurately. We can go straight to our list of trusted suppliers to get the work started. More importantly, we were able to deliver the same standard for our investors again and again. By creating a reliable experience for our customers, trust is gained. Repeat business is beneficial to both us and our customer.

Scaling up

Having systems in place means you are ready and able to scale your business and grow. Not only will it streamline existing processes but taking on new/more staff will be easier.

For example, in our e-commerce business, we needed to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) so we could continue to grow. At the beginning of our e-commerce business journey, I detailed a full procedure document that had the step-by-step processes needed to launch new products. However, we did not have the time ourselves to action all of the steps and we therefore looked to hire.

Having a detailed process in place enabled our new VA to produce valuable output from the very beginning. To take this to the next level, I then systemised the process of hiring a VA. So when it came to hiring one for our property business the process was mostly automated and quick to action.

The added benefit of staffing/outsourcing your systemised processes means it frees up more of your time to start working ON the business rather than IN the business. If you are working in a corporate role, think about how systemisation could benefit your company. Put together a plan and show the benefits, savings and/or improved sales it will create. Even better, look to systemise your own role and either use the free time for yourself (if you are able to) or create more value for your employer to gain promotion. If you are looking for a change, systemise your- self out of the business and say that the savings made by putting these systems and processes in place will pay for your redundancy package and a lot more!

Saleability

Whether you want to ultimately sell your business, franchise it or grow in other areas, systemising will greatly increase its value. If your business can run without you, its attraction for investors or aspiring franchise clients is significantly increased. They do not want a business that is going to take them 60 hours a week to grow, nor a business that relies on the owner’s relationships with clients. Another added benefit of setting your business up to sell (even if you are not looking to do so yet) is that the systems and processes in place will allow you to detach from the day-to-day running of the business. This would reduce your hours and create a more passive income.

Systemising your business or role is not a quick task. You will need to take time away from the direct profit- making activities. But don’t let this short-term loss stop you from gaining the longer-term benefit.

Five-Step Process for Business Systemisation

1.Document Document exactly what you do each day. If you have staff, get them to do the same. Wherever possible, record your actions - whether it is an intricate piece of brickwork or an elongated process on the computer, recording the process will help new and existing staff complete the task.

2. Analyse Once you have documented your business processes, analyse them and see whether there are any efficiencies to be made. You may find staff repeating processes or doing the same thing in different ways, or orders for supplies being ordered from different suppliers with varying costs and quality. Until you have all your processes written down and can view your business holistically, it is hard to see improvement areas (especially if you are caught up in the day-to-day running of the business).

3. Record As well as processes, you should analyse data. If you are not recording data yet, start as soon as you can. Without data, you will not know what areas of your business are most profitable, which clients are most profitable and which strategies result in the most sales etc. Recording and analysing this data will help you improve your processes along with knowing which no/low-profit areas and clients to drop and which ones to focus on.

4. Manage With a systemised structure in place, it is now time to manage. Each process should be looked at individually with the view to either leverage, manage or do. Low-value tasks that are time-intensive may be outsourced. A company that specialises in the task will have their own efficiencies making the task cheaper. For those tasks that you cannot leverage outlook to manage them.

With clear documented processes, new staff should be able to complete these tasks with little to no input from yourself. These tasks should also be tied into their job description along with Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can then effectively manage them and monitor their progress against the job they should be doing. Finally, those tasks that you can not leverage or manage out, you should do yourself. These should either be tasks you enjoy doing or those that are key to the business that you cannot delegate.

5. Improve The final and ongoing stage to systemising your business is to embed an improvement culture into your business. Every member of your team that is following your operating system and processes should look to reduce time and cost, improve efficiency and grow sales. Staff will feel more valued as they can individually suggest improvements to their work and see them implemented. So your business will advance and grow from not only improved processes but more energised staff.

Risk vs Reward

Systemising your business or role is not a quick task. You will need to take time away from the direct profit-making activities of your business. But don’t let this short-term loss stop you from the longer-term benefit. Without systemising your business, you may get stuck working IN the business rather than ON the business. Working on monotonous tasks could stunt your career or business growth, make you miss big opportunities and render you less able to react to change.

If you are running a business, you may also fear a member of your staff taking your entire business’ operating procedures and setting up in competition with you. To counter this risk, it is best not to have one master operating procedure for your entire business. Instead, have a framework document which refers to different annexes, checklists and processes. Staff will only be able to access the documents relevant to their work. Those who gain trust and grow with your company can view more of the operating procedures, but maybe still not the entire manual. This will depend on who you hire and the type of business you are in.

When is the best time to systemise your business or role? If you have not done so already, NOW! The sooner you begin the easier it will be. There will be some upfront increased effort and time spent on doing this work - but you will start seeing the benefits sooner. This is time invested that will continue to pay you back in the long run.

Recommended books If you would like some further reading on this subject, I recommend:

Work the System by Sam Carpenter

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

Built to Sell by John Warrillow

Alternatively, if you have any questions, would like to know about the training we offer to businesses and business owners to help them leverage or would just like to get in touch, please check out the Turner Invest website and contact us.

Stephen TurnerTurner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Managing project costs can be hard enough as it is, but when it is an IT project the challenge is much harder. On average IT projects run 45% over budget and over time so businesses should ensure they have the right plan and management of the project. The following are our top three tips to controlling an IT project.

“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it” – Scott Allen

Tip 1: Clearly Define Requirement Defining your exact requirement and specification of the IT solution you are creating is key. By specifying and sticking to the precise requirements of the IT project, exactly what the IT solution should be covering and who can make changes to the plan you will avoid ‘scope creep’ and an ever enlarging IT project and budget.

Tip 2: Consider Outsourcing Outsourcing to countries has become a lot easier and due to the reduced wages in some countries, can be a cost effective solution. Whether you outsource the entire project and ongoing solution or just specific parts of the project there are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing that you should consider depending on the project. Sites such as people per hour and elance are good for project work and bit.ly/thevivaclub is good for hiring a full time employee.

Tip 3: Reduce Ongoing Costs Not only can the project works spiral but the ongoing IT maintenance and support can get unnecessarily large. Carry out an audit of software licences and existing IT costs, you may find too many licences have been purchased or you still have membership or maintenance costs for programmes you no longer use. Also consider cloud computing that can significantly cut costs of the purchase and maintenance of servers along with bringing efficiencies for access to data.

As evidenced, managing IT costs needs firm control in order to stay within budget. Using these tips along with other project management tips, see our Three Tips to Project Management blog, will help you control the project and costs to come in on target.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

​Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

When starting a new business or growing your business, most entrepreneurs need to attract investment. Whether this is from banks, crowd funding, an investor or Joint Venture (JV) partner, you need to present your business or opportunity in the best possible light in order to secure the finance you require. The following are a few tips to help you attract investment for your business or opportunity.

“There are no secrets to success, it is the result of hard work, preparation and learning from failure” – Colin Powel

Tip 1: Business PlanA detailed business plan will be required from your potential investor that details exactly what the investment will be spent on. This may be your business plan for your entire business or for a specific project depending on the investment you are looking for, business growth or project specific. These plans should be studied with an analytical perspective of a potential investor so you can pre-empt and address any questions you feel they may have.

Tip 2: Know Your Value If you are looking for investment for your business you need to know the value of your business and the projected value of your business, not forgetting to include the value of intellectual property – for example brands, inventions and knowledge. If you are looking for investment for a specific project and therefore the investor is investing in you, you should still value yourself and the skills and knowledge you bring to the opportunity, along with the projected value of the project, the return they will be getting and the exit strategy (preferably more than one to prove the security of their investment).

Tip 3: Know Your Offer Now you have your plan and have valued yourself and your business you need to define exactly what you are offering to investors and what you would not accept. Decide beforehand whether you want to pay a straight interest return on the investment or whether you want to form a partnership. Interest returns need to be affordable for your business (ensuring your business/opportunity remains profitable) and attractive to the investor. Where possible, do not offer a stake in your business in return for investment as this could stop you running your business how you want to due to shareholders rights and interests. But in the case of JV partnerships, if the investor will bring benefit to the opportunity then a share of the business/opportunity should be considered.

Attracting investment can be an important part of your business’ growth, so stringent planning of must be done before presenting the opportunity to potential investors. Additionally early networking to build relationships with potential investors before you have your investment opportunity will help you succeed.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

​Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams​

Whether you are investing with a partner to build your property portfolio, investing with a company to get a good return on your money or looking to acquire or invest in a company, conducting good due diligence is key to reducing risk. Due diligence is used to investigate and evaluate a business opportunity. The aim is to confirm that the opportunity is what it appears to be, identify potential defects to avoid a bad business transaction and gain further information to value the opportunity before proceeding. The following are a few tips to ensure your due diligence is thorough and proper.

“Winning can be defined as the science of being totally prepared” – George Allen

Tip 1: Define Purpose First things first, you need to be clear about why you are looking into the opportunity and where the value of the opportunity lies. If you are looking for hands-free investment and the opportunity required you to be an active member then you are looking at the wrong opportunity. Be sure you have this defined and that you are not looking at an opportunity purely because it arose. You should also define your level of risk and what would make you walk away from the opportunity.

Tip 2: Structured Approach When looking to invest in a business there are three areas to focus on; the trend in the business’ financial results; the outlook for demand and competition; and what has and will make the business competitive in the long term. These three areas can be broadly used when assessing other investments and not just when acquiring businesses; trend, demand and success features.

Tip 3: Quality Over Quantity Now you know the answers you need to make a decision, you must ask the right questions. The key to due diligence is not to shy away from asking questions in order to get a true picture of the opportunity. When information and answers are received your focus should be on the quality of the information provided, not the quantity. The quality of the financial information is vital so ensure you receive well evidenced forecasts with no missing data.

This just touches on the subject of due diligence covering the approach you should have for gathering the correct information. Meeting with the business/opportunity owners and knowing the values they hold will also be of importance. You should not stop your due diligence until you have a firm answer on whether you wish to invest or not.

For larger acquisitions of companies you can hire specific companies to conduct the due diligence for your or the broker selling the company may have already prepared this for your review. But again ensure your mind is clear and that you are happy with the level of remaining risk before you proceed.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams​

As any business owner knows, there are never enough hours in the day to complete everything and decisions need to be made when you are out of office as much as you are in office. Therefore to make your business digitally efficient, you will be able to keep up to date, work and collaborate with your team on the move. The following are a few tips on making your business digitally efficient.“What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done” – Tim O’Reilly Tip 1: CloudMoving to cloud based computing can give you and your team access to documents from anywhere. Files can be saved, stored and shared from Google Drive or Drop Box, with notes shared via apps such as Evernote and data entered and shared on cloud based software. This allows you to keep up to date at all times and outsource your business away from the office. This can be to working from home/on the road staff or to overseas staff where you can hire full time Virtual Assistants or pay people for specific jobs/tasks, taking advantage of the world market.Tip 2: Apps There are many apps available to help you manage your business and these are constantly changing and updating. Get recommendations from other people in your field and see what they are using so you can minimise research time. The various types of app that could help your business are:

Accounting software apps – for a summary overview and to manage your account

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software apps – see where your business is with various leads

To-do list apps – keep your action lists prioritised and easy to find

Read it later apps – save information you want to read for a later point when you have spare time

Your own business apps – develop your own apps for your internal business processes

Tip 3: Database ManagementNow you have the software and apps in place for your business you need to ensure your business operating procedures include effective use of these so that documents are easy to find and up-to-date, all are saving in the correct way and using the same tools, your CRM is up-to-date for anyone to use and email etc. is efficiently managed.

As you can see, leveraging technology effectively can increase the efficiency of how your business is run. It is therefore time well invested in ensuring you have the best tools and have the processes in place for ongoing efficiency which will help when your business grows.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

​Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Generally speaking, the more data a business collects about itself, the more likely they are to succeed, if the data is used correctly. And as a starting out entrepreneur, the data capture often gets missed. However, if a business wants to succeed and grow quickly, they are more likely to achieve this if they have all of the data on sales, finances, KPIs, meetings, expenses, staff, contacts, leads etc. The following are a few tips to help you best use this data.

“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess” – Ronald Coase

Tip 1: Know Your DataFirstly, you must know the broad range of data your business could be capturing and put processes into place to capture this. Data can range from sales values per customer, average payment times, social media interest, website analytics and the cost and sales made from events, promotions and advertising. As you can see, not all data captured needs to be financial, but when analysed and acted upon can lead to increases in profits.

Tip 2: Frequent Real-Time Analysis Now you have the processes in place to capture the data, you should run real-time analysis. Ideally, you should get a member of your team to collate the information and provide you with a weekly/fortnightly/monthly report for you to scan and analyse. The information should be presented in an easy to read format, where possible pictorially, so you can quickly analyse and make decisions. Data linked to staff, team or business KPIs should be highlighted to ensure that they and you are on track.

Tip 3: Act Knowing and analysing the data is not effective without acting upon it. Once you have analysed the data and reports, action plans need to be put into place to address or improve any areas. Examples include:

Increasing KPI targets as the team are achieving the initial targets set

Amending web pages as the data shows a high proportion of customers leaving on a particular page

Increasing or decreasing certain advertising due to the cost per sale ratio (remember to take into account the life time value of customers and wider issues when deciding to remove an advertising route, or any other process)

Amending the posting time for social media to improve impressions and interest

As you can see, a lot can be achieved from effective use of data and data capture and analysis should be prioritised within your business. Companies can invest heavily in the tools to capture data, only to waste it by not making full use of it. Businesses just starting up should consider capturing data in accounting software and a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and in quick time delegate this task out in order to focus on the reports and graphs the data produces.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Public speaking is one of the most common fears and for entrepreneurs and business owners, the opportunity to excel your business often comes with some form of public speaking (for example Catherine Turner, Director of Turner Invest, has spoken and inspired thousands of people on stage at the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp among many other stages).

Whether you are selling to a new customer, pitching to investors or selling yourself and your business at an event in front of thousands, your ability to enthusiastically and clearly communicate your message will directly influence your closing success rate. The following are a few tips to help you succeed at your next speaking opportunity.“All speaking is public speaking whether it’s to one person or a thousand” – Roger LoveTip 1: Mind-SetGoing in to a speech with the right mind-set will greatly increase your chance of success as you will be confident and be able to sell yourself in the best possible way. You should:

Visualise yourself giving the perfect speech with the audience cheering you

Remember that the audience have travelled to the event to listen to you and they want you to succeed. They do not want to hear a bad speech and will therefore be supporting you.

Remember that the worst possible outcome will not be the end. You will have other chances where you will be able to take the learning from this speech to improve the next so do not panic, over-think or stress.

Relax and enjoy it - the more you enjoy it and be yourself, the more you will connect with your audience and be successful in your speech.

Tip 2: Plan You should plan your speech but not try to memorise it all word for word. Your speech needs to have interaction and feeling and a totally memorised speech will lose this. You can however memorise the very first part, this is so you know exactly what you are going to say straight away without any hesitation and then this will get you into the flow for the rest of the speech.

Tip 3: PracticePractice makes perfect. The more you practice your speech the more you will be comfortable presenting it. Practice the content, the message and the speed of your speech. Make sure you breathe throughout your speech, keep at a moderate pace and pause to emphasise important parts.

Overcoming the fear of public speaking and practicing will help you sell yourself and your business to realise your full potential. These have been just a few tips to help you get started.

Great learning resources are also available including the audiobook ‘Speak to Win’ by Brain Tracy and a great course that we have attended and fully recommend (to be put in touch with this course, email pa@turnerinvest.co.ukwith the subject Speaking Course Recommendation).

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Whether to report on progress, set new goals, come up with new ideas, pitch for finance or motivate staff, every business requires meetings. However, a lot of business time and resource can be wasted through poorly managed meetings (as can be evidenced by the number of negative quotes for meetings compared to positive!). The following tips will help you run effective meetings to get the outcomes required.

“The amount of meetings I’ve been in - people would be shocked. But that’s how you gain experience, how you gain knowledge, being in meetings and participating. You learn and grow” – Tiger Woods

Tip 1: Specify ObjectivesThe first step for any meeting is to specify the purpose and to know exactly what outcomes you want from it. The topics for discussion should be prioritised to address the purpose and get the required output first. If possible, you should tell the meeting participants in advance of the exact goal required from the meeting so they can prepare themselves to address the area/issue quickly and effectively.

Tip 2: Set a Strict Time Plan Tell participants that the meeting will be no longer than half an hour (or whichever the minimum time is). This will drive them to address areas quickly knowing that the meeting end is in sight. When setting an end time, stick to it. Failing to do so consistently will make attendants dread the meeting due to it always overrunning and therefore come to the meeting with less energy and enthusiasm. Tip 3: Minimise Meeting AdminThe administration of a meeting can often last longer than the meeting itself. Do not fall into this same trap. Do not write minutes for the meeting, only record decisions made if they require it. Depending on the type of meeting do not spend time on arranging comfortable conditions, coffee or lunch. The idea is to get areas addressed quickly and for everyone to get out of the meeting and back to work, some organisations conduct stand-up meetings for even quicker results.

Obviously customer and investor meetings would require extra niceties so do not always apply the same strict rules you would for internal staff meetings.

These are just a few areas of maximising the output and efficiency of meetings that you could implement in your business. Remember do not hold a meeting just to have a meeting, ensure there is a set goal.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter from our home page and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

Project work requires close management in order for them to finish on time, to the specification and on budget. Whether you deal with projects as part of your job, for personal projects or seem to be doing projects continually as an entrepreneur building their business, project management requires extra skills than normal management. Following these tips will get you closer to running successful projects.

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things” – Mother Teresa

Tip 1: Assemble a Power TeamA project usually requires many skills and if you or your team do not have these it is best to outsource to trusted suppliers/contractors. Therefore building relations with suppliers and contractors prior to you needing them for a project will help you when it comes to choosing and hiring them. Having a strong power team will help you run your project smoothly as they will be able to deal with the issues you are unable to, such as legal or building etc. (unless that is your business).

Tip 2: Plan & Review ProgressWith a strong team around you, you will be able to delegate parts of the project for their management. Ensure you have scoped the project elements in detail, breaking them down in to bite-sized deliverables so you can easily track progress. Forming exact specifications or schedules of work will assist in achieving the desired result and assist with planning the budget and timeline. Identify any critical paths in your project, those tasks that if delayed will delay the whole project, and ensure enough resource and time is allocated to them in both planning and managing the tasks.

Tip 3: CommunicateNot only do you need a good plan and a great team to achieve it, you need to be able to communicate with the team in order for them to stay motivated and on target. Remember this is your project and not theirs so if they have no stake in finishing on time, it is unlikely they will. Therefore tie in rewards or final payments based on accurate work that finishes on time. You will need to form a balance between ‘hard’ project management such as risk and schedule control and ‘soft’ project management such as leading and motivating your team.

There are many tools and techniques to project management that can be used and in some instances you can hire a specific project manager which, again, you should link rewards into finishing on time, to the quality expected and on or below budget.

To enhance your general project management skills, PRINCE2 may be beneficial, or if you are running large scale property development projects then we can recommend a great course we have completed (to be put in touch with this course, email pa@turnerinvest.co.uk with the subject Property Development Course Recommendation).

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams

When you have your business up and running, it is good practice to ensure the health of your business is in good order to ensure it remains profitable and growing and that it is ready for any market change that may affect business. Some business owners can get caught up working ‘in the business’ and neglect to work ‘on the business’. With this attitude, growth will be hindered and market or business changes will not be forecast, let alone planned for. These few tips are to help ensure your business is in business for the long-term.

“If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan not the goal” - Unknown

Tip 1: Use Accurate InformationSmall business owners can often waste valuable time in working with inaccurate or not up-to-date information. Ensure your data is being collected and recorded accurately and efficiently before you analyse it. Real time financial, sales or processes information can greatly assist in making right decisions and planning the future based on trends. If you can report real time decreases in sales consistently over the last 6 months then you are in a better position to explore the reasoning than if this data was unavailable, inaccurate or available too late.

Tip 2: Standardise Processes One great recurring tip, that has proven successful for many businesses, is to standardise processes. A few of the advantages of documenting business processes and procedures are as follows:

Standardisation of processes across the business

Efficiencies and improvements can be made on an ongoing basis

Staff can be trained easily and be part of the improvement process

Your business becomes more scalable

Your business becomes more saleable

Your business becomes more able to react to changes

Tip 3: Business Model Re-ExaminationWith accurate information and standardised processes you are able to tell where your business is at any point. As the world, technology and markets change rapidly, re-examining your business model should occur at least annually, preferably quarterly. You must ensure that your business is still relevant for the current market and it is still producing you the results you expected, if not it is time to change. This may not need to be a wholesale change of your business model, but could be changing from shop-front selling to online selling or expanding or niching the target markets you sell to.

​Assessing your business health and business model may not be on the top of your agenda when you are busy filling orders or making sales, however, it is much better to be pro-active and check so you can plan rather than be reactive and lose revenue as you attempt to change.

These tips do not cover all the areas you should be checking, cash flow (see our blog on Improving Cash Management) and your ability to expand are also important when assessing the health of your company.

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.